🚨 ALERT: Senate Republicans introduced shocking anti-voting #SB221, legislating intimidation, conspiracy & election subversion:
-makes mass voter challenges easier
-requires dangerous surveillance of voters
-targets election workers w/new felonies & misdemeanors
& more. Thread: #SB221 is conspiracy as policy. Last year, GA conspiracy theorists challenged 92K voters. SB221 would lower the amount of proof required of challengers, force counties to consider challenges based on unreliable data, and undermine the NVRA. nbcnews.com/politics/elect…

THREAD: TODAY, 4 anti-voter bills are being considered in the Senate Ethics Committee at 5pm. Georgia, we need YOU to call and email committee members demanding they oppose these bills:

Max Burns: (404) 463-1376
Rick Williams: (404) 656-0082
Jason Anavitarte: (404) 656-0085 Steve Gooch: (404) 656-9221
Marty Harbin: (404) 656-0078
Bo Hatchett: (404) 651-7745
John Kennedy: 404) 656-6578
Randy Robertson: (404) 656-0045
Brian Strickland: (404) 463-6598

🚨GEORGIA: Republicans are pushing forward with their latest anti-voting attacks and JUST PASSED their omnibus anti-voting bill through the House. #HB1464 would devastate local election administration and undermine our democracy: THREAD ⬇️ #gapol Voters turned out in record numbers in 2020. In response, GA Republicans passed one of the worst anti-voter bills in the country. Now they're doubling down—trying to sabotage elections and ban donations to counties, even donations of food & water. #gapol

🚨GEORGIA:🚨Right now, Republicans are doubling down on their anti-voter attacks and attempting to rush ANOTHER omnibus anti-voting bill through the state legislature. #HB1464 would devastate local election administration and undermine our democracy: THREAD ⬇️ #gapol Even after Kemp and his GOP allies promised no new election bills this year, Georgia Republicans are now trying to force through a substitute bill they did not release until mere HOURS before its first hearing - and, like SB 202, it's STILL not available online. (2/15) #gapol

1: GEORGIA VOTERS: Across our state, the GOP is subverting local control in several diversifying counties in a transparent power grab. THREAD 👀👇🏼👇🏾👇🏿 #gapol 2: Cobb, Gwinnett, Athens-Clarke and Augusta-Richmond Rs have ignored House Rules that govern the local legislation process, leading the AJC to warn about this “power grab” that “could significantly shift the power of elected officials.” ajc.com/politics/power…

According to a new data analysis by @MotherJones, GA saw skyrocketing numbers of mail ballot application rejections—disenfranchising many GA voters—after the implementation of SB 202, the anti-voter omnibus bill pushed through the GA Assembly by Republican lawmakers in 2021. 1/6

https://twitter.com/AriBerman/status/1487072338319482887

Over half of mail ballot application rejections were due to GA’s new deadline requiring they be placed no later than 11 days before the election rather than up until the Friday before Election Day. 2/6

Despite a problematic op-ed recently published in the NYT, election subversion and #JimCrow era voter suppression wielded today are inextricably and problematically linked. We need the #FreedomToVoteAct and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to mitigate this harm. 🧵 Election subversion and voter suppression were used together during the #JimCrow era of the 1870s-1950s to prevent Black voters from utilizing their full electoral power in the South: (2/9)

THREAD: Georgians showed up and showed out across the state to elect an impressive slate of Fair Fight-endorsed candidates. These leaders are ready to get to work, serving their communities and improving their constituents’ lives.

Check out all the winners below👇🏽 1/ #gapol Congratulations to Booker Gainor, Mayor-Elect of Cairo! 2/

The #FreedomToVoteAct takes the necessary steps to protect our democracy and strengthen national standards for voting access for every eligible American regardless of zip code. So what’s in the bill? (🧵): Blunting Jim Crow-era tactics by restoring voting rights to formerly incarcerated people, preventing states from purging based on vote history, and prohibiting witness/notary requirements for vote by mail (2/8).

Statement from Fair Fight Action Founder @staceyabrams:

“I commend Attorney General Merrick Garland, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, Associate AG Vanita Gupta and Assistant AG Kristen Clarke for taking bold action to combat restrictions on Georgians’ freedom to vote. 1/5 Senate Bill 202 in Georgia and similar anti-voter bills being passed around the country undermine our democracy and restrict access in ways that target voters of color. 2/5

🚨 OHIO: 🚨 The omnibus voting bill HB 294 will be heard in committee TOMORROW. Let’s be clear: this bill is yet another attack on our fundamental freedom to vote. Republicans are bringing the same attacks to Ohio that we’ve already seen in Georgia and Florida. (1/4) A democracy that works for us must include all of us. HB 294 makes voting LESS accessible. Like other anti-voter bills across the US, HB 294 restricts mail voting and drop box locations and availability, creates new ID requirements, and eliminates a day of early voting. (2/4)

The secret Heritage video exposed by @ariberman makes abundantly clear what we’ve known all along: despite what Brian Kemp, Barry Fleming, and GOP officials across the country have said, #SB202 and other anti-voting bills are part of a nationwide GOP-led attack on voting rights. This attack has been engineered by the far-right Heritage Foundation to disenfranchise voters of color in response to the Big Lie surrounding the 2020 election.

As Republicans try to defend #SB202, county officials are decrying how the voter suppression bill will reduce voting access and increase cost to taxpayers. The latest criticism comes from Gwinnett, where drop boxes will be reduced from 23 to 6. #gapol gwinnettdailypost.com/local/gwinnett… Gwinnett County is Georgia’s second-largest county and one of the most diverse in the state. The provisions in this bill disproportionately burden voters of color, who heavily relied on access to absentee voting and ballot drop boxes to cast their votes in 2020 and 2021.

THREAD: 50 Reasons Why Georgia's New Voting Law Really Is That Bad.

Each reason is cited by line so feel free to follow along with the actual text here: legis.ga.gov/legislation/59…
#gapol #SB202 1/13 HYPERCRIMINALIZATION: Georgia's new law codifies mass disenfranchisement and further expands criminalization policy in the voting process. 2/13

THREAD: New polling shows that Georgia Republicans’ voter suppression bill #SB202 just passed in the House isn’t just an anti-democratic power grab -- its key provisions are also overwhelmingly opposed by Georgians. ⬇️ 1/ #gapol drive.google.com/file/d/1ZY8qb_… Nearly 8-in-10 Georgians -- including more than 6-in-10 Republicans -- oppose #SB202 plan to criminalize the handing out of food and water to people standing in line waiting to vote. 2/ #gapol

JUST NOW: GOP state legislators voted #SB202 out of committee. SB 202 would restrict voters' freedoms and access, as well as giving GOP legislators the unprecedented power to remove and replace entire local boards of elections and take control of the State Election Board. #gapol Endorsed by @SpeakerRalston, #SB202 would ban Souls to the Polls and weekend voting in runoff elections. In the recent US Senate runoffs, not only were Black voters disproportionately likely to vote on weekends, on 3 out of 4 days, Black voters OUTPERFORMED white voters. #gapol

Tomorrow there will be a committee hearing on #SB202, which would restrict Georgians’ freedom to vote, criminalize giving water to voters in long lines, and allow GOP takeovers of local election offices. And voters can’t even read it- the bill still isn’t available online. #gapol GEORGIANS: call and demand these legislators OPPOSE #SB202: 
Speaker David Ralston: 404-656-5020
Barry Fleming: 404-656-5125
Alan Powell: 404-463-3793
Jan Jones: 404-656-5072
Chuck Martin: 404-656-5146
Lynn Smith: 404-656-7149
Bonnie Rich: 404-656-5087
#gapol

THREAD: Today, 3 days after Barry Fleming dropped a surprise substitute to #SB202, a 94-page mess and the worst anti-voting bill in Georgia, it’s STILL not available online. See for yourself ⬇️ - this is disgraceful and unacceptable. #gapol
legis.ga.gov/legislation/59… #SB202 combines the worst of #SB241 and #HB531 - limiting weekend voting, criminalizing giving food and drink to voters waiting in long lines, new ID requirements - and adds dangerous new provisions to allow the GOP-led legislature to take over county boards of elections. #gapol

HAPPENING NOW: Georgia House Republicans led by Rep. Barry Fleming are rushing out a 93-page substitute to SB 202 right before a key committee meeting to try and ram through their anti-voting agenda as part of their unconstitutional attacks on Georgians’ voting rights. #gapol The substitute not only includes a false and misleading preamble promoting the Big Lie and conspiracy theories, but also mirrors their similarly disastrous assaults on the right to vote, #HB531 and #SB241 - with whole sections copied and pasted into the SB 202 substitute. #gapol

THREAD: As the nation remembers #BloodySunday and the violent scenes on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Republicans in state legislatures are fighting to resurrect the dark history of Jim Crow, and Georgia is on the front lines of GOP voter suppression. #gapol brennancenter.org/our-work/resea… From attempts to criminalize those handing out food and water to voters waiting in long lines, to efforts dismantle the Black church tradition of Souls to the Polls, these bills, like those in the era of Bloody Sunday, are targeting Black and brown voters. nytimes.com/2021/03/06/us/…

THREAD: Today, Georgia House Republicans took yet another step to send voting rights in Georgia back to the days of Jim Crow and forced through #HB531, moving forward on one of the strictest and most anti-democratic pieces of voter suppression legislation in the country. #gapol #HB531 is a dangerous attempt to roll back voting rights, leading to longer lines and more restrictive rules for absentee ballots while limiting weekend voting and threatening Georgians’ privacy by creating opportunities for identity theft just to request a mail-in ballot. #gapol